Summary:
Olive's Ocean is a book about a girl name Martha who receives a letter from the mother of a dead girl name Olive who was in her class but have never met or talked to her. Martha is surprised by the early morning visit, and after getting the letter she finds a quiet place and read the note. After reading the letter, shes feeling awkward and wishes that if only Olive was alive they could be really become good friends. Martha and her family plan a vacation that they normally do every year to visit her grand mother. This is the trip that will also give her the chance to see the boy that she likes, and to find the opportunity to tell her family especially her father that she wants to be a writer. She is also aware as she finds out that Olive also wanted to be a writer as well as an individual that loved the ocean. Martha and her grandma decide that they would tell each other things that are important matters to one another, but grandma sees that Martha is holding back so much and wished that her grand-daughter is up-front with her feelings. The beach is beautiful as always and she gets excited as she knows soon she will be seeing Jimmy Manning, the boy she likes. Although she kept herself busy, she couldn't help but think about Olive, so she decide to take something back for her, and because the loved the ocean she decided that she was going to take a bottle of water (ocean). She finally runs into Jimmy and they go for a walk, even taking pictures. She allows Jimmy to take a picture of them kissing, and he tells her that he will be using it to show his friends. Martha tries hard to get the film but Jimmy jokingly laughs it off which leaves Martha all pissed off. As the vacation comes to an end, she finds out that Jimmy isn't the one she likes, it's his brother Tate, and he tells her that he had always liked her since the first time they met. Martha and her family start packing to go back home, she makes sure she has everything packed, especially the jar of water for Olive's mom. Martha feels good about herself, especially after finally telling her father that she wanted to be a writer. She starts to miss her grandmother wishes that they could stay longer, but she realizes that they all needed to go home. It's time to leave and she doesn't hear anything from Tate, but when the car pulls out they see someone running towards their car, they come to find out it's Tate. The car stops and he gives her a letter, she is so happy. Soon as they arrive home, she takes the jar of water out and runs to find Olive's house. She gets there and finds out from the landlord that she had moved. So she gets the bottle of water and writes Olive's name on the cement stairs pausing to say her good-bye. She walks away and starts to run all the way home.
Bibliography:
Henkes, K. (2003). Olive's Ocean. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
My Impression:
I had a very different impression on this story book aside from the other books that I had read, maybe because I was a bit thrown off because the characters weren't even friends. I mean it's pretty hard thinking about someone that you don't even know, yet you get a letter saying that you were the nicest person and wished you were friends. I find that the author had to really think deep for a good writing story line, as her main character Martha felt really sorry and wished that somehow if Ocean was alive, they could really have gotten to be good friends. After meeting Olive's mother and getting that letter, Martha took the news really hard. Sometimes we don't pay too much attention to the people around us, we don't take the time to say hello because there's so much things in our mind, yet we forget that there are others who need more help than we do. Olive was a loner, having only her mother and moving to a new school with no friends to talk to or play with. I think she Olive had her own connection with Martha, being that she loved the ocean, and also wanted to be a writer. So seeing Martha in class, maybe the way she smiled gave Olive hope that she would be a good friend. Thinking about Martha, I would have been really surprised to get a letter from someone that I don't even know, then to find out that they died, I would have felt really awful too. I think what Martha did was great, getting something for Olive and putting a closure so she wouldn't feel as bad as she did. It was a really nice gesture, the bottle of water (ocean).
Professional Review:
Booklist starred (September 1, 2003 (Vol. 100, No. 1))Gr. 5-8. More than anything Martha wants to be a writer. The problem is that her father does, too. Is there room for two writers in a single family? This is only one of the many questions that beg to be answered during Martha's twelfth summer. Here are others: Is Godbee, the paternal grandmother whom the family is visiting at Cape Cod, dying? Why is Martha's father so angry? Could Jimmy, the eldest of the five neighboring Manning brothers, be falling in love with her (and vice-versa)? And what does all this have to do with Olive, Martha's mysterious classmate, who died after being hit by a car weeks earlier? Olive, who also wanted to be a writer and visit the ocean, and hoped to be Martha's friend. Like Henkes'Sun and Spoon (1997), this is another lovely, character-driven novel that explores, with rare subtlety and sensitivity, the changes and perplexities that haunt every child's growing-up process. He brings to his story the same bedrock understanding of the emotional realities of childhood that he regularly displays in his paradigmatically perfect picture books. This isn't big and splashy, but its quiet art and intelligence will stick with readers, bringing them comfort and reassurance as changes inevitably visit their own growing-up years.
Retrieve from:
http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=c7ba9e1be57b0b4ee5073c3401c6af0d
Use in Library Setting;
I would ask the students to collect things from the beach and ocean such as sand, shells, bottle of water (ocean), anything dealing with the beach or ocean. Students will get up and talk about what they have collected.
Image from:
http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=568&tbm=isch&tbnid=4fXEcVf4HUduOM:&imgrefurl=http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/olivesocean.html
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